The most recent series in Nature’s Soapbox Science blog focuses on different ways scientists worldwide are funding their research in the current economic climate. Tekla Labs, Kickstarter, and Petridish are all featured as new avenues for scientists to fufill their research needs in the face of decreasing federal funding and parallel increases in crowdsourcing and social networking.

and of course Tekla Labs couldn’t agree more. Go Make!
To see some of the type of creative stuff in the talk for yourself (or to showcase your own designs!), go to one of the Maker Faires. The next Bay Area Maker Faire is May 19 & 20. NY’s edition is in September.

Tekla Labs’ 3D printing competition is on and the first designs have been submitted! We’ll be acccepting submissions until the end of April.

There have been some questions about the ownership/sharing of submitted designs: we’re encouraging everyone to be as open as possible and to share their designs through our website or other online portals. See the competition guidelines for details of our open license suggestion. However, this is ultimately up to you, and feel free to suggest alternatives that work for you!

In addition, Instructables is hosting an even larger competition – Make it Real – with $100,000 in prizes for the best designs! And best of all, you can submit the same designs to both competitions! Thanks to Instructables again for sponsoring our competition at the same time as they are running their own and for supporting “2-for-1″ dual submissions.

This coming Monday, February 27th, Tekla Labs will be demoing some designs we are working on at the BioCurious hackerspace in Sunnyvale, CA. Join us there to hear more about what designs we are working on, and test out some of our recently build DIY lab equipment. Space is limited, so sign up soon!

Chemical & Engineering News just published a great article, Makeshift Chemistry, on the need for affordable lab equipment–featuring Tekla Labs and other interesting projects to increase research capacity in emerging regions!

Just a reminder that Tekla Labs is going to be at the AAAS Annual Meeting this weekend!

We are organizing a symposium on Friday, featuring talks focused around ways in which scientists, engineers, and policy makers can encourage the growth of research capacity in emerging regions. Dr. Iruka Okeke, an associate professor in biology at Haverford College, will be joining us to discuss her experiences working with labs in Africa and share insights on how to build fruitful international scientific collaborations. Our own Lina Nilsson will give a talk about Tekla Labs and other recent efforts to make low-cost, high quality laboratory tools using off-the-shelf resources. Finally we will hear from Dr. Barbara Gastel, a professor at Texas A&M University, who will discuss her work on the AuthorAID project, which aims to connect researchers in developing countries to the global science community by helping them write about and publish their research.

Tekla Labs is excited to announce a 3D Printed Design competition for do-it-yourself science and engineering: PRINTmyLAB.Get your design 3D printed! Over $1000 in additional prizes for the winning entries!

Categories
1) DIY Alternative: A 3D printing blueprint for an item that can replace a commercial product or a specific component of a commercial product used in scientific laboratories or in scientific/engineering research. Especially helpful if this part tends to break or get lost.
2) Novel Gadget: A 3D printing blueprint for a novel item not commercially available that is of use in scientific laboratories or in scientific/engineering research. Invent! Imagine! Print!